Legalization of drugs would reduce black markets

Tennessee's meth problem is directly correlated to the futility of the drug war. Outlawing substances that are in demand creates dangerous black markets controlled by criminals. Disputes are settled with guns rather than by courts, and products are not subject to safety standards and regulations that exist in a legal marketplace.

As we experienced with alcohol prohibition, the law created perverse incentives for people to concoct new, dangerous products themselves, such as poisonous bathtub gin and moonshine. Under today's proposed prohibition laws the phenomenon comes predominantly in the form of meth or crack.

Pushing for certain cold medications to be prescription-only doesn't even begin the scratch the surface of the systemic problem with drug prohibition. In 1999, Portugal decriminalized all drug use in response to a heroin epidemic. Fifteen years later, heroin use in Portugal is down over 60 percent because addicts are treated like patients instead of criminals.

It's past time to admit the drug war is an absolute failure. Legalizing drugs, like any other consumer good, will eliminate the perverse incentives that brought us meth in the first place.

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Legalization of drugs would reduce black markets

Tennessee's meth problem is directly correlated to the futility of the drug war. Outlawing substances that are in demand creates dangerous black markets controlled by criminals.